IPL 2012 Final Review

Kolkata Knight Riders are the new IPL Champions. They chased down an imposing Super Kings total inspired by Manvinder Bisla and Jacques Kallis. Both scored half-centuries in different styles in a great game of cricket that went down to the wire. The Knight Riders will have to thank Manvinder Bisla. Displaying no nerves he set about taming the Super King attack with some ease. He was ably assisted by the unflappable Jacques Kallis who was there till almost the end to take the side through to their maiden title.

Chasing a huge total of 190 runs in a final is a tough task and it got harder for the Knight Riders as Hilfenhaus struck in the very first over bowling Captain Gambhir, the team’s most prolific batsmen and Chennai would have thought that was half the job done. But then came Bisla. He kick-started Kolkata’s run-chase by hitting Albie Morkel for four boundaries and kept the pace going through to his highest IPL score of 87. Kallis was restrained during his half-century, brought up off 39 balls, and his 136-run stand with Bisla helped end Chennai’s superb run in the 2012 playoffs in dramatic fashion and denied them a hat-trick of trophies. Chennai didn’t give up and took the match into the final over, but Manoj Tiwary finished the deal with two leg-side hits with two balls remaining. After Morkel, Bisla then took on R Ashwin. He was driven for consecutive sixes, down the ground and over mid-on, and the chase was on. With the 50 of the innings coming up in the sixth over, Bisla stepped up the scoring in the next over by driving Dwayne Bravo for six over mid-off. MS Dhoni tried the left-arm spin of Shadab Jakati after the time-out, but Kallis greeted him with an edged four. Bisla reached his half-century in 27 balls in the same over, and in Bravo’s second he collected his fourth six.

By the halfway mark, KKR were 100 for 1 and motoring on smoothly. At this stage they needed 91 from 60 balls. The way Bisla and Kallis were playing it did not look difficult to achieve at all. It was Bisla all the way. His intensity and strike-rate did not relent. In Jakati’s second over, he hit two more fours, then collected a sixth six by slamming Ashwin over extra cover. At the other end, Kallis was playing a gem of his own. His 69 off 49 balls eased the pressure on Bisla. Jakati was lofted over the in-field for consecutive boundaries as Kallis reached fifty off 39 balls and then perfectly bisected two men in the deep for a boundary after Laxmi Ratan Shukla was out for 3. Kallis had a moment of luck when Michael Hussey held a leaping catch on the boundary but fell across to concede six.

The match again swung tantalizingly as Yusuf Pathan lost his wicket to Ashwin, at which point KKR needed 27 off 17. Kallis then cramped up to adding to the tension as he found it difficult to run the singles and twos. With 20 to defend off 12 balls, Hilfenhaus sent down two full tosses in a row – the first Kallis hit straight to sweeper cover to be out for 69, but the next was deemed to be above Shakib Al Hasan’s waist. The Knight Riders got three priceless runs and an extra ball, which Shakib expertly scooped to fine leg for four. This was a huge setback of the Super Kings. Needing nine from six balls, Shakib and Tiwary exchanged singles before Manoj Tiwary swung Bravo over short fine leg for four and another pull through the same region to hit the winning runs.

IPL has a new champion.

DLF IPL 2012 has a new champion - Kolkata Knight Riders

Earlier in the day, It was the turn of the next big out of form batsman from the Chennai Super Kings to shine on the big stage here today as they chased their hat-trick of titles. Suresh Raina who has had an indifferent championship so far came into form and played a swashbuckling innings of 73 of only 38 deliveries helping his team reach a formidable 190 for 3 in their allotted 20 overs.

MS Dhoni won the toss and chose to bat in the final where they went in with an unchanged side from the playoffs. Knight Riders, though, were forced to make changes because their seamer L Balaji didn’t recover in time from his hamstring problem. They decided to go with the pace of Brett Lee, which meant sidelining their regular wicketkeeper-batsman Brendon McCullum, with Manvinder Bisla returning for only his second match in more than a month.

First MS Dhoni, then M Vijay and now S Raina have each played three great innings to get back into form and importantly all have been in very important games for the Super Kings. Today was Raina’s day. To Raina’s advantage he walked in with the Chennai Super Kings opening duo putting up a good stand of 87 in 10.2 overs. Quickly settling down, with Hussey for company, Raina proceeded to flay the Kolkata Knight Riders with a great deal of ease.

After a slow start, the Chennai Super Kings tore in to the Knight Riders attack. After two overs that went for only 12, the Super Kings took 48 off the next four. Brett Lee was taken for two boundaries in the third over, Shakib was hit for six first ball, and Lee’s third over went for 19 as each opener hit boundaries and a six each.

It was an innings of masterly skill. In the process he laid bare the mystery of Spin wizard, Sunil Narine whose bowling he took a special liking to. Raina was in his elements today. None of the Knight Rider bowlers posed any problems for him. His first hit to the boundary was a powerful pull for six of Jacques Kallis. But it was his attack on Sunil Narine that caught the eye. Two massive sixes of the bowler stood out, a slog sweep into the stand and a huge six near the sightscreen. Similar treatment was meted out to Brett Lee as well.

Sunil Narine was belted for 37 runs in his four overs and he didn’t get a wicket! For the first time in the Championship, the mystery of Narine was sorted. Raina in particular was severe on him. Brett Lee went for 42 in his 4 overs.

The Super Kings batted with intent. It was a measured batting effort on display in the finals. M Vijay carried on his good form from the last game with an attractive innings of 42 that included a beautifully timed six over long-on of Brett Lee in the sixth over. Birthday boy Hussey kept him good company. Always alive to the need to keep the scoreboard ticking with quick singles he mixed them with some good hits to the boundary and a couple of sixes. After losing M Vijay, he held the innings together giving Raina company.

Eventually Hussey was bowled by Kallis missing a swipe getting bowled. It was a tired shot with the heat and humidity eventually getting to him. It was a good solid innings of 54 of 43 deliveries that included 4 hits to the fence and 2 sixes.

But the Kolkata Knight Riders did not allow the Chennai Super King batsmen any easy runs towards the end of the innings. The last 3 overs infact yielded only 30 runs and that included a great last over by Shakib Al Hasan who gave away just 8 runs at a time when you would have expected the batsmen to hammer every ball. The Kolkata Knight Riders fielded with intent. The fielding was good and it was a sustained effort throughout the innings. The determination of the Captain as he marshaled his resources was backed by a disciplined effort.

IPL 2012 Final stats

The chase of 190 is the highest successful run-chase in IPL history against Chennai Super Kings. The previous highest had been 188, by Kolkata Knight Riders in 2009, and Kings XI Punjab in 2011.

Manvinder Bisla’s 89 off 48 balls is the second-highest score by a batsman in an IPL final, next only to Murali Vijay’s 52-ball 95 in the 2011 final.

Before this final, Bisla had scored 414 runs in 21 IPL innings at 19.71 and a strike rate of 109.23. For Knight Riders, he had scored 196 in 11 innings at a strike rate of 97.51.

In four IPL finals, the opening partnerships for Super Kings read: 39, 44, 159, 87. The opening stands for other sides in IPL finals have been 19, 0, 20, 1, 1, 3.

The partnership of 136 between Bisla and Jacques Kallis is the second-highest in an IPL final,after the 159-run opening-wicket stand between Michael Hussey and Vijay in the 2011 final.

IPL 2012 Final – Post match Interview with Gautam Gambhir

Gautam Gambhir leads KKR to the IPL 2012 Championship Title

When the Kolkata Knight Riders paid a whopping USD 2.4 million in the 2011 IPL Players Auction for Gautam Gambhir, several eyes popped out and eyebrows were raised. Gambhir was neither a ballistic giant like Chris Gayle nor did he have the Midas touch of MS Dhoni. Why would a team spend a fortune on a diminutive opening batsman with more skill than power and without much experience in a leadership role? Two years thence, the answer is here. KKR’s pocket-sized powerhouse has led them to something that they’ve been craving for since the last five years – the IPL crown.

Since his appointment as KKR’s captain, Gambhir has voiced his desire to bring joy to the City of Joy. And he has brought beaming smiles on the faces of the people of Kolkata by leading their team from the front. Despite being KKR’s highest run-getter with 590 runs in the tournament and marshalling his troops wisely, as a team man, Gambhir refuses to bask in self-glory.

After leading KKR to a win over the Chennai Super Kingsin the IPL 2012 final, Gambhir took time out to share his thoughts with iplt20.com. While being modest about his own contributions, Gambhir eulogised his team for showing great heart.

How would you describe this victory?

We wanted to prove this point to everyone that a captain is only as good as his team, and it’s the team that has done the job for us.

You were really pumped up after the win. Was it the ecstasy of the victory?

This is what you play cricket for. The entire odds were against us. We were playing CSK in their own backyard and they were the defending champions. From day one, I have been saying that KKR is not about one or two individuals, it’s about all of us sitting in the dugout and in the dressing room. We proved the point to the country that KKR is not about ‘me’, it’s about ‘we’.
What was the talk in the dressing room after the first innings?

If someone can get 190 against our bowling attack, it obviously is a very good wicket to bat on as we have done a fantastic job throughout the tournament with the ball. We always thought we could chase that target. People were talking a lot about our middle order, saying it hasn’t clicked but they showed it when it mattered the most. After [Manvinder] Bisla, I think Manoj [Tiwary] is the actual hero, because I have always said that it’s not about the start, it’s how you finish; Manoj finished it perfectly for us.
Was there anything that the team did differently this time around after coming close in the last season?

It’s never about coming close – you either win or lose. There are no greys, its either black or white; and that is how I have lived my life. In the last season, we didn’t play as well as we should have, and this year, we were determined to take the side all the way. I have always said that we are the side to look out for, and that is what we have shown today.
Who would you dedicate this victory to?

Today, I was playing for L Balaji. He has been our unsung hero; [he] missed out in this crucial match due to injury, that too in front of his home crowd. I personally wanted to do this for him and he deserves all of this.

Does captaincy bring out the best in you?

I don’t know. I think it’s the successful team that makes a successful captain and not vice a versa.